The University of Sydney Page 1
WORK 1004:
FOUNDATIONS OF MANAGEMENT
Tutorial 6 – Organising
The University of Sydney Page 2
Tutorial 6: What we are doing today
– Group Presentation #3
– Group Challenge - organising
– Wrap-up and next week
The University of Sydney Page 3
Group Challenge
– Read the Family Business Group Challenge on p. 444 of the textbook.
– Activity and context. In groups of 3-5 students, assume that you are a
consulting team to a family business. The family has used an inheritance to
acquire a medium-sized pharmaceutical company. Last year, sales were
down 10% from the previous year. Indeed, the business has declined over
the past 3 years, even though the pharmaceutical industry has been
growing. The family that acquired the business seeks your help.
– Task. Your task as a group is to rank the priority of the departmental
functions in order of importance for assigning additional resources to
improve the business in the future.
The University of Sydney Page 4
Group Challenge
– Step 1. Individually, rank the following 10 functions in order of importance,
and make a note of your reasons:
– Distribution
– Manufacturing
– Market research
– New-product development
– Human resources
– Product promotion
– Quality assurance
– Sales
– Legal and Gov’t affairs
– Finance and accounting
The University of Sydney Page 5
Group Challenge
– Step 2. As a group, discuss the order of importance to the 10 functions,
sharing your reasons for how functional priority should influence the
companies strategic needs.
– Step 3. How does the group’s reasoning and ranking differ from your
original thinking?
– Step 4. What did you learn about organisational structure and design from
this exercise?
– Step 5. How does what you have experienced in this activity relate to course
content (group presentation, readings or lecture material)?
The University of Sydney Page 6
For next week…
– Management and Leading:
– Chapter 15 from the textbook